Project 365 – Day 185: Sand sculptures at the urban beach

July 3 2012

Since I had to go down to the Old Port on some errands this afternoon I popped over to the Urban Beach to check out the sand sculptures on the Quai de l’Horloge. There are 3 sculptures in total that were done for the Art in the Sand (Art en Sable) competition held between 23rd June and 2nd July. Luckily the sculptures were still in pretty good shape.

I always find it sad that these great works of art in sand are normally eroded so quickly after their creation by the sea. In this case it will likely be a bulldozer or some city employees with shovels. Anyway, glad I was able to capture the grains of sand in their artistic form.

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal
ISO 100 – 22mm – f4 = 1/1000 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal
ISO 100 – 34mm – f4.2 – 1/200 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal
ISO 100 – 58mm – f5 – 1/1250sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal
ISO 100 – 45mm – f4.8 – 1/640 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal

Sand sculpture on the Quai de l’Horloge in Old Montreal
ISO100 – 34mm – f7.1 – 1/500 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I highly recommend anyone who lives in or visits Montreal to take a Saute Moutons jet boat ride on the rapids. Boats leave from the Quai de l’Horloge on a fairly regular basis to ride the rapids just a short distance in the west. Be sure to take a change of clothes or wear your swim suit as you will feel like you’ve been for a ride in a washing machine 😉 These lucky folks were in for a good soaking – I still don’t know why they bother supplying rain coats.

Saute Moutons Jet Boating

Saute Moutons Jet Boating
ISO 100 – 250mm – f8 – 1/80 sec

Saute Moutons Jet Boats

Saute Moutons Jet Boats
ISO 100 – 12mm – f8 – 1/400 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Saute Moutons Life Vests

Saute Moutons Life Vests
ISO 100 – 145mm – f5 – 1/125 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Saute Moutons Life Vests and coats

Saute Moutons Life Vests and coats
ISO 100 – 240mm – f5.6 – 1/100 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Since I was next to the new Urban Beach I took the opportunity to grab some shots – I think this is the first time I actually shot it with people sunbathing. Looks quite a nice spot to watch the boats come and go and work on the tan at the same time.

Montreal Urban Beach

Montreal Urban Beach
ISO 100 – 14mm – f6.3 – 1/1000 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Montreal Urban Beach

Montreal Urban Beach
ISO 100 – 18mm – f7.1 – 1/500 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

On the way back through town I kept my camera at the ready in case any opportune people shots occurred…

Keeping cool on a hot afternoon

Keeping cool on a hot afternoon
ISO 100 – 300mm – f5.6 – 1/40 sec

A lazy afternoon on the lake

A lazy afternoon on the lake
ISO 100 – 300mm – f5.6 – 1/160 sec

A colorful scene

A colorful scene
ISO 100 – 70mm – f4.5 – 1/60 sec

A serious game of checkers

A serious game of checkers
ISO 100 – 140mm – f4.8 – 1/20 sec

The circus festival apparently begins tomorrow with a parade, so I may go check that out late afternoon. I don’t think they will have elephants and lions roaming the streets though like in the old days 😉

To view images in gallery format, simply click on one of the images below.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

Martin

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

100 thoughts on “Project 365 – Day 185: Sand sculptures at the urban beach”

  1. 😀 Your pictures of the sand sculptures and cirque tent are MUCH better than the ones I tried to take!!

    Also, I nearly keeled over when I found the smoothie stand from your photos of Old Montreal! I was so excited that I recognized it from your blog.

    Thanks for the photos 🙂

    Reply ↓

  8. Amazing sculptures! I can’t believe that people actually make that out of sand. I am so bad in making anything in sand. If I am trying to make an elephant, it all turns up into a tree! 🙂

    Reply ↓

  10. awesome photos. i actually love the impermanence of the sand sculptures. they remind me of the sand mandalas tibetan buddhist monks create. they are made, and then destroyed as part of a ritual that symbolizes life’s transience.

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks Katie…The sculptures were next to the clock tower. I think they were only made last week (contest ran 23rd June – 2nd July). If they weren’t removed yet, I guess the heavy rain yesterday didn’t do them much good 😦 Hopefully new ones will be back next year (or sooner).

      Reply ↓

  15. Really great shots! I especially love the first Urban Beach photo and the photo of that man keeping cool on a hot afternoon. And congrats on being featured! 🙂

    Reply ↓

  20. Your photos are really beautiful! I find it amazing that those sculptures were made of sand – they’re incredible! Thanks for sharing and congrats on being freshly pressed! 🙂

    Reply ↓

    • I passed them on the street and rushed over to the other side to catch them. Funny thing was I had wanted to shoot the scooter earlier, but glad I had waited for these ladies to pass by 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and the kind comment.

      Reply ↓

  28. Reblogged this on Texas Poetry and commented:
    It is summer. With it comes sandy surfs, sunshine days on the water and just great plain photos of folks enjoying the summer. I felt this Reblog represented all of those in the photos shown in this “Freshly Pressed” winner from the WordPress family of blogs.
    Blessings in each of your journey’s this summer,
    John J. Rigo, Texas Commentator and Poet from McKinney and Gun Barrel City, Texas, USA

    Reply ↓

  30. I found your photos of the sand castles so moving. They are a brief gift of art like the spontaneous compositions our pianist makes during communion. Never to be seen or heard quite the same again. Great photos!

    Reply ↓

  37. Congratulations on getting ‘Freshly Pressed’! (It was about time your work got recognized!) BTW, after seeing your wonderful fireworks post (esp with the specs included – very helpful! thanks! :-)), I had sent the link of your wordpress site to my photography teacher (a very passionate photographer/instructor and former professional photojournalist) and he thought your work was really good and wanted to know who you were. He is also a former Montrealer, like me. Anyway, look forward to seeing more visually stunning photos showing how my old city has changed – but not too much, I hope…;-) P.S. Do you post-production in Photoshop or Gimp? Any thoughts on Silver Efex for B&W post-production transformations?

    Reply ↓

    • Thank you again for the kind comments. It was nice to hear your teacher liked my work and thanks for sharing 🙂 For post production I mainly use Lightroom and Topaz Adjust and for HDR, Photomatix is my main tool. I loved the latest Photoshop 6 while it was in beta test, but unfortunately can’t afford to buy a copy at the moment. I use Elements when I need to work with layers (mainly for HDR), but Gimp is a good (free) alternative. I did try Silver Efex and again if funds were available I would certainly buy this for B&W processing. For now, I generally do my B&W conversion/post processing in Lightroom.

      I plan shooting the fireworks again tonight (Switzerland turn to impress), maybe from the top of Mount Royal…did you check out the post on tips for shooting fireworks? Since I wrote that I found a few other cool tips I hope to try during the festival, so stay tuned 😉

      Reply ↓

      • Wow, I didn’t know there were so many post-production software options out there!.. I love playing around in Photoshop, myself. (My teacher prefers Gimp, which is Photoshop-based.) It’s amazing what you can do, but I find myself struggling a bit with reconciling when the photo becomes less photography and more graphic art. As a former photojournalist, my teacher was not permitted to make ANY adjustments whatsoever since the image had to be the objective, true representation of the subject/scene, but he says, in just about any other context (esp marketing), expect the photos one sees to have been modified from the original… On another note, yes, I did consult your fireworks tips and tried to shoot the Ottawa Canada Day fireworks, which are always spectacular (though maybe not quite as spectacular as the Montreal International Fireworks competition!), but my location was really poor, so the pics are kind of blah. As my consolation prize, I decided to shoot a long exposure of cars (i.e., showing colorful streaks of light) racing around the perimeter of the canal from the vantage point of a bridge. That was really fun! Look forward to checking out your photos of the Switzerland fireworks display! Cheers 🙂

        Reply ↓

        • Indeed, lot’s of choice when it comes to post-production software. If not already using, I highly recommend getting a copy of Lightroom (or if Mac user, Aperture). Photo Journalism has some very strict guidelines when it comes to editing photos – I think I would find that difficult 😉

          Sorry to hear your firework pics were not as good as you had hoped – I had the same issue re poor location last night. Despite that, at least we got out there with our camera’s 🙂 Long exposures are one of my favorite techniques and look forward to seeing you car trails posted on your blog 🙂

          Reply ↓

          • Not sure yet if I will post the car trails – amazing amount of light pollution from the city at 23h00!? Will need some post-production work to darken things down a bit more. Hope to soon post a B&W portrait series of a relative’s toddler in a park. She was very photogenic! 🙂 Love shooting landscape, architecture, and people…

            Reply ↓

    • Thank you Mr Prose. I agree people shots can say a lot about a place. Like so many cities, Montreal has many colorful characters. I love street photography and should do more…thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment 🙂

      Reply ↓

Leave a comment, ask me a question or just say Hi :-)